Prepare to Meet Thy God by F. D. STARR

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 26, 1913

“Prepare to Meet Thy God”

By F. D. STARR

F. D. STARR

“I HAVE overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Amos 4: 11, 12. A preparation for the great day of God, so near at hand, is imperatively demanded. The impending judgments of God, like those that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, are cited as an incentive to cause men to make this preparation.

Those wicked cities of the plains are set forth in the Scriptures for an example of final punishment to all who should after live ungodly. 2 Peter 2: 9; Jude 7. The cities of today are fast becoming like those ancient corrupt centers of population, and the judgments of God in various forms are being felt by earth’s inhabitants. But the prophet declares that these judgments, falling heavily upon the land, have not aroused the guilty to repentance, nor caused them to return unto the Lord; therefore more and greater calamities must be visited upon the impenitent race. “And because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”

For every special event a special preparation is necessary. To neglect this preparation is fatal. “That servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” It is necessary to do the Lord’s will strictly, to obey his commandments fully, but this can be done by those only who have made the necessary preparation. At the time of our Saviour’s first advent, a special work of preparation was demanded and was accomplished by the preaching of John the Baptist. “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isa. 40: 3. See also Matt. 3: 3; John 1: 23.

But no more certainly was the way to be prepared before the work of Christ at his first coming than is the way to be prepared before his second appearing. “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work [“recompense,” margin] before him.” “Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” Isa. 62: 10, 11; 57: 14.

In preparing the way of the Lord, the way of his people will also be prepared. The conditions and signs of the times show this to be the day of his preparation (Nahum 2: 3), just as the time while the ark was preparing was the day of preparation for the antediluvians. 1 Peter 3: 20.

“The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God.” 2 Chron. 30: 18, 19. This heart preparation is the all-important thing. “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” Ps. 15: 1, 2. The one hundred forty-four thousand who are ready for translation have made the necessary preparation. “In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Rev. 14: 5.

Guile is deceit, the opposite of truth. In the last days truth will be to a great extent disregarded. “Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” Isa. 59: 14, 15.

The conduct of the people is aptly described by the prophet thus: “They bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. . . . And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies.” Jer. 9: 3, 5. With the largest professedly Christian organization teaching that it is a religious privilege to tell a falsehood instead of the truth when circumstances demand it, what else can be expected but that lying will, by all who come under such influence, come to be regarded as a very light offense? Notice the following statement by Alfonso de Liguori: “It is permissible to swear to anything which is false by adding in an undertone a true condition, if that low utterance can in any way be perceived by the other party, though its sense is not understood.” Of this same organization, the prophetic declaration is, “It cast down the truth to the ground.” Dan. 8: 12.

Truth as a system of belief must be restored, and believers be established in the present truth. Not only must God’s eternal truth be received instead of Satan’s falsehoods, but we must so “hate and abhor lying” (Ps. 119: 163) that we shall not prevaricate in the least degree, nor deviate from strictly telling the truth in every matter. “These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” Zech. 8: 16.

Not even the so-called white lies are justifiable. “As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?” Prov. 26: 18, 19. “He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.” 1 Peter 3: 10. Surrounded by the prevailing custom of deceiving practised among our fellow beings, we shall need to use the utmost diligence to speak the truth in our hearts and with our tongues, that in our mouths no guile may be found. Thus may we be prepared to meet our God with the righteous nation that keepeth the truth.